Each week we dig into the one of lectionary passages for exegesis and homiletics
Missouri DS Mike Palmer joins the podcast to talk about the challenges and opportunities facing the small church from his perspective as a longtime District Superintendent.---In the final episode of season one of the Sacred & Small podcast, Pastor Mike Palmer, District Superintendent of the Missouri District Church of the Nazarene joins the Jasons to talk all things small church.Pastor Mike first shares the ethnography and demographics of the Missouri District Church of the Nazarene. The Missouri District is a district made up of almost entirely small churches — churches of around 200 or less in worship attendance. Pastor Mike has served the district for 19 years as DS and even longer as a pastor and evangelist. He has seen it all, and he shares from his experience about the challenges facing both small churches and small pastors and how the church can overcome them.He also advocates for the small church and small church pastors. The small church has a great opportunity ahead of them and is capable of doing even greater things than larger churches, if the pastor and people are willing to pursue God's mission and not get caught up in power struggles and traditions. Join with our conversation! We would love to hear what challenges you think are facing the small church and what opportunities God is calling small churches to.
Missouri District Church of the Nazarene District Superintendent Mike Palmer shares the story of his call and ministry. ---In this week's episode, Pastor Mike Palmer, District Superintendent of the Missouri District Church of the Nazarene, joins the Jasons to talk about his pastoral journey. Pastor Mike is retiring in the summer of 2025 after 19 years of service in the DS role.In this episode, Pastor Mike and the Jasons talk about Mike's call to ministry and his experience as an evangelist/revivalist before being elected to the DS position. Revivals and evangelistic gatherings, like the old camp meetings, aren't as popular as they used to be. We discuss why that is, the important role that experiences play in our greater spiritual life and discipleship, and the ways that churches/districts are filling those gaps today.We are so grateful to have Pastor Mike with us and wish him all the best in his retirement!
Sabbath is a command from God. How do you practice your sabbath rest? Do you incorporate seasons of rest into the life of your church? Let's talk about it!---Sabbath is one of the 10 commandments. But when the week gets busy, it seems like one that pastors — including the two Jasons — too willingly break. In this episode of the Sacred & Small podcast, the Jasons talk about the concept of sabbath and their personal practices of rest. We then talk about the importance of rest for our congregations, and how we try to work in seasons of rest and recovery for our people.How do you and your congregation practice rest? We would love to hear from you!
Church life seems to build toward this climactic moment at Easter. Anyone else experience a letdown the next week? In both attendance, expectations, and energy? Let's talk about it!---The Easter letdown. The Jasons don't know who coined the phrase but we have both experienced it.In this episode of the Sacred and Small podcast, the Jasons gather to talk about how their Easter and Holy Week services went, what went well and what didn't, and what they expect over the next few weeks.Don't let the Easter letdown get you down! Christ is resurrected. And that's good news for the church, even when you aren't having an egg hunt.
Sam Sprunger from Webster Groves Church of the Nazarene is back with the Jasons to talk about the essential liturgical and missional elements of Easter.--Easter is nearly upon us! It's an important day for pastors of churches of any size. In this episode of the Sacred & Small podcast, Sam Sprunger has a conversation with the Jasons about all things Easter. What is it? What are the essential missional and liturgical elements we include for Easter? How do we approach Holy Week in our churches?Episode Rundown:* What is Easter?* What are the essential elements of Easter?* How are you practicing Easter and Holy Week in your church?
Sam Sprunger from Webster Groves Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO shares his story and the story of his church.---A big part of what we want to do here at Sacred & Small is tell small church stories! In this episode, Sam Sprunger, pastor at Webster Groves Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO, joins us to share his path to ministry and the missional ministry of Webster.Webster's story is of particular interest to us because our own Jason Buckwalter was a youth pastor there before taking his current senior pastor position at Fulton Heartland. Sam and Jason are able to share the ways that Webster's culture has changed over the years and how that's played itself out liturgically and missionally.
Dr. Tiffany Ross and the talk about Lent and the formative place of means of grace during this season.---Dr. Tiffany Ross, pastor at Gateway Church of the Nazarene, joined with the Jasons in the second of their two-part interview. In this episode, the Jasons and Tiffany walk through their understanding of Lent, focusing on spiritual practices called, in Wesleyan circles, the means of grace. The means of grace are transformative in our lives, imparting God's grace to us, inspiring us to act in faith, and result in grace for ourselves and others. They are the heart of spiritual formation, and the core of what the season of Lent is all about.Episode rundown:What is Lent?Lent and the Means of GraceWhat are the means of grace?How are we practicing the means of grace this season?
Dr. Tiffany Ross from Gateway Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO shares her story and the story of her church.---This week the Jasons were glad to welcome Dr. Tiffany Ross, pastor at Gateway Church of the Nazarene onto the podcast!We follow our ethnographic interviewing strategies to ask her “tell me about…” questions that get to the heart of her call from media production to full-time pastoral ministry. She recently felt called to come to Gateway Naz as their senior pastor, and she shares about that process of transition and what she learned about her people when she arrived.Tiffany will join the podcast for a two-part series that will take us into the season of Lent.Episode rundown:The season of Lent at Sacred and SmallMeet Tiffany RossTiffany's call to ministryAn ethnographic narrative of Gateway Nazarene
The Jasons continue their exploration of the LASTS method - language, actors/actions, space, time, and symbols.----In this two-part podcast series, the Jasons tackle the LASTS method of participant observation. What is participant observation? It is an immersive ethnographic methodology where you observe a community of people as an active participant within the community. Doing this allows a small church pastor or leader to get a hands-on experience of the culture of a community in action, and helps them better reflect on its embedded theologies and embodied liturgies.In this second of two episodes, Jason Buckwalter observed a selected church worship service from Jason Hill's church. This service was chosen because it was the first week that Cape Naz was implementing a new system to receive prayer requests.Episode Rundown:Re-introducing the LASTS methodJason B reflects on a special service at Cape Church of the NazareneWe both draw some conclusions about the culture at Cape NazWe consider the LASTS method of participant observation
Listen to this sneak peak of Earth for Lent! Everyone who orders a copy of Earth for Lent will get an audio version of the book read by none other than the author herself, Brit Bolerjack! Order your copy of Earth for Lent today!
The Jasons introduce the LASTS Method - Language, Actors/Actions, Space, Time, and Symbols - of participant observation and critically reflect on each other's church cultures.----In this two-part podcast series, the Jasons tackle the LASTS method of participant observation. What is participant observation? It is an immersive ethnographic methodology where you observe a community of people as an active participant with the community. Doing this allows you to get a more hands-on understanding of the culture of a community, like a church, and help you better reflect on it's embedded theologies and embodied liturgies.Over the next two episodes, the Jasons will watch a selected church worship service from the other's church, take field notes on what we experience while watching using the LASTS parameters of language, actors/actions, space, time, and symbols, and then reflecting on our experience to try to describe the culture of the church.This is something that any pastor can do in their own context to better understand the values that you express as a church.
Leading people in a church can be an act of mutual submission, discipleship, and pastoral care. Episode Rundown: * A theology of mutual submission. * Leadership in the church. * The volunteer problem in small churches. * Our approach to volunteer management
Church buildings. They're a major investment, a time-suck, and also a place of transformational ministry. Let's talk about facility management! Episode rundown: * Facility maintenance as a percentage of the church's budget * Current facility issues that we are dealing with * Our approach to facility management * Major renovations & capital campaigns * Dealing with insurance
The Advent and Christmas seasons are over. Tis the season for some reflective criticism on what went well, where the Spirit worked, and what we could change next year. Episode Rundown: * Our Advent themes * Christmas Eve stories * Looking ahead to 2025
Retired Nazarene District Superintendent Kim Smith talks through a lifetime of pastoral lessons learned, both good and bad. --- In our final episode with retired District Superintendent Kim Smith, we talk lessons in pastoral ministry! Kim shares his decades of experience and both positive and negative lessons learned. Episode Rundown: Listening to the Spirit Leading people with relationships instead of pushing them to do what you want Pastoring as an introvert Developing leaders and starting new ministries Inspiring cultural change
Rev. Kim Smith retired as the District Superintendent of Iowa District of the Church of the Nazarene. He's now returning to the pastorate in a small church restart. He shares his story & his approach to intentional missional relationships. --- We're pleased to have Rev. Kim Smith join with the Jasons for the next two episodes of the Sacred and Small podcast. Kim was a retired District Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene who has now returned to pastoring, to help a church that was on the verge of closing recover it's missional vitality. Kim brings decades of pastoral experience and a heart for intentional missional relationships to the conversation. We discuss Kim's story, missional relationships, and the distinction and necessity of both “attractional” and “missional” outreach in a small church.
Jason & Jason continue their two part series on liminality in the church by talking about the liminal relationship between a church and the community.
Jason & Jason start a two part series on liminality in the church by talking about the way small church pastors can speak prophetically to their congregations.
Join Alicia and Megan as they discuss preaching through Advent!
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from Jan Richardson's Circle of Grace We highly recommend Jerusha Neal's Overshadowed Preacher Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music
SHOW NOTES Contact us to have a conversation about supporting the show: podcast@aplainaccount.org How to Eat Together as a Church, a webinar with Rev. Pardue and N4CC Jewish Voices for Peace on zionism. Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from Jan Richardson in Circle of Grace, a Book of Blessings for the Seasons Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is “For Breaking Bread with Others” from Feminist Prayers for My Daughter by Shannon K. Evans Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is “For A Faith Community” from Feminist Prayers for My Daughter by Shannon K. Evans A quick review of the historical context for eunuchs in the ancient world: https://www.britannica.com/topic/eunuch Two ancient references worth considering that highlight the non-binary reality of eunuchs: The first one is from St. Augustine who describes castrated eunuchs as “neither changed into a woman nor allowed to remain a man” (City of God 7.24). The other comes from the Tosefta (a Jewish commentary on the Mishnah), which applies *both* male and female laws to the eunuchs. Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is “We Are Baffled” from Awed To Heaven, Rooted in Earth by Walter Breuggemann N. T. Wright quote from Surprised By Hope: “Once we get the resurrection straight, we can and must get mission straight. […] People who believe in the resurrection, in God making a whole new world in which everything will be set right at last, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present” (Surprised by Hope 193, 214). […] And if we believe it and pray, as he taught us, for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, there is no way we can rest with major injustice in the world. […] The final putting to rights of everything does indeed wait for the last day. We must therefore avoid the arrogance or triumphalism of… imagining that we can build the kingdom by our own efforts without the need for a further divine act of new creation. But we must agree… that doing justice in the world is part of the Christian task” (Surprised by Hope 213, 215, 216). Indeed, the prophet Micah reminds us: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV). Here's a review from Tim Wildsmith (The Bible Review Blog) of the GBA bible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6TVa7scKM Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from Liturgies For Hope by Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore – “A Liturgy For Those Embracing the Mystery of Faith” Disability Theology: My Body is Not A Prayer Request, by Amy Kenny N. T. Wright quote from Surprised By Hope: “Once we get the resurrection straight, we can and must get mission straight. […] People who believe in the resurrection, in God making a whole new world in which everything will be set right at last, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present” (Surprised by Hope 193, 214). […] And if we believe it and pray, as he taught us, for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, there is no way we can rest with major injustice in the world. […] The final putting to rights of everything does indeed wait for the last day. We must therefore avoid the arrogance or triumphalism of… imagining that we can build the kingdom by our own efforts without the need for a further divine act of new creation. But we must agree… that doing justice in the world is part of the Christian task” (Surprised by Hope 213, 215, 216). Indeed, the prophet Micah reminds us: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV). Padraig O'Tuama reads a poem from Illia Kaminsky on the Poetry Unbound podcast: “We Lived Happily During The War” Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Listen to the text: YouVersioin Bible App, Dwell Bible Explore Alabaster Bibles Our prayer this week: Easter Sunday: While It Was Still Dark, by Jan Richardson Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “Blessing of Palms” by Jan Richardson Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: Awed To Heaven Rooted In Earth, Walter Brueggemann– “We Try As Best We Can To Live By Bread Alone” Also mentioned: “Caminante no hay camino” by Antonio Machado Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: A Liturgy for Giving Thanks from Liturgies for Hope: Sixty Prayers for the Highs, the Lows, and Everything in Between Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley and The Whole Language by Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries are books referenced in this episode.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “For This Lovely Day” from The Lives We Actually Have Alicia's Ash Wednesday playlist and Lent playlist A prayer of unknowing by Thomas Merton Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
Two audio notes this week: There's a silent gap for several seconds at minute 20, but hang tight! It comes right back! Megan's audio during the prayer goes in and out. You can read the full text here: From The Lives We Actually Have, by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie "For when this pain doesn't make sense" God, I'm fumbling around for answers, reasons, meaning.I can't find any purpose in this pain.Why me?Why them?Why now?I don't know when this is going to get better.Or if I will ever feel relief.God, make this pain matter... at least to you.See me in my fragility.Give me a reminder of your presence.Reach for me,for I am too weary to reach for you.Blessed are we who need to be remindedthat there are some things we can fix ... and some things we can't.Blessed are we who can say:My life isn't always getting better.Right in the midst of the pain and fear and uncertainty, may we hunt for beauty and meaning and truth... together.Not to erase the pain or solve the pain (though surely that would be nice),but to remind us that beauty and sorrow coexist.And that doesn't mean we're broken or have been forgotten.God is here, and we are never-were never and will never be-alone.In our hope. In our disappointment. In our joy. In our pain.God, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Spirit, have mercy. Amen. Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have Alicia's Ash Wednesday playlist and Lent playlist Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have Alicia's Ash Wednesday playlist and Lent playlist Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “A Travel Blessing” from Common Prayer: Pocket Edition “Epiphany Prayer” from Thin Places Everywhere: 12 Days of Christmas with Celtic Christianity. Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Epiphany episode from Year C Alicia's prayer for peace Kelly Latimore Icons
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “There is a time to be born and it is now” – Awed To Heaven, Rooted In Earth by Walter Brueggemann “Christmas is for the brokenhearted.” - Chuck Summers “Every Valley (It's Hard To Wait)” by Rain for Roots “How To Keep TIme” - podcast from The Atlantic Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “A Liturgy For Those Waiting For A Dream To Come True” - Liturgies For Hope Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. “Light the candle anyway.” – Sarah Bessey “God didn't show me the whole path, God gave me a flashlight, to see one step ahead of me.” – Sister Helen Prejean
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “Blessing to Summon Rejoicing” by Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace “In Death Valley, A Rare Lake Comes Alive” New York Times Inciting Joy, by Ross Gay Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “For the Interim TIme” - To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue …. “For Those Who Bear Witness” - The Lives We Actually Have by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie “Jesus is what God has to say” - Brian Zahnd, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Alicia's advent playlist and Matt's EP
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “Blessing When the World is Ending,” Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace Alicia's Advent playlist and Matt's Advent EP Alicia mentioned Kintsugi pottery. Learn more about the beauty in the art of repair. Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: Feminist Prayers For My Daughter “For a Faith Community” Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. We'll be back for the first week of Advent– reading through the Psalms!
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is from The Lives We Actually Have – “Collective Grief” (p 74-75) Alicia mentions Dr. Mekel Harris's Instagram account. Check out her full website here. Megan mentions Jan Richardson's book, The Cure for Sorrow Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week: “Liturgy for Wresting with God” from Liturgies for Hope Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
SHOW NOTES Our texts this week are here (Megan is reading from the Common English Bible) Our prayer this week: “A Liturgy For Those Who Worship The Wrong Thing” from Liturgies for Hope Browse our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Andrew Root, Churches and the Crisis of Decline Exodus commentaries: OT For Everyone by John Goldingay, NBBC Commentary by H. Junia Pokrifka Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
As we move from Pentecost to Ordinary time, we celebrate the beauty in the ordinary and take extra time for rest and play. We'll be taking a break from regular podcasting, but will be back in your feeds soon! Meanwhile, there are amazing resources continually available every week on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music. Our quote comes from An Altar in the World, by Barbara Brown Taylor Our prayer this week is "For an Ordinary Day" from The Lives We Actually Have (Bowler & Richie) Browse the rest of our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/aplainaccount
Pentecost A | Acts 2:1-21 Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is Blessing that Undoes Us by Jan Richardson Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/aplainaccount Some commentaries assisting in Easter season: Jerusha Matsen Neal on workingpreacher.org and Acts by Willie Jennings (Belief Series), Acts by Beverly Roberts Gaventa (Abingdon NT), Acts For Everyone by N. T. Wright Browse the rest of our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
Ascension of Our Lord | Acts 1:6-14 Our texts this week are here Our prayer this week is In the Leaving from Circle of Grace Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/aplainaccount Some commentaries assisting in Easter season: Jerusha Matsen Neal on workingpreacher.org and Acts by Willie Jennings (Belief Series), Acts by Beverly Roberts Gaventa (Abingdon NT), Acts For Everyone by N. T. Wright Browse the rest of our curated booklists! Purchasing through this affiliate link generates a small commission for us and is a great way to support the show https://bookshop.org/shop/aplainaccount Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
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